Been incredibly hot and dry here for many weeks now .... 42C yesterday and bushfires everywhere, luckily none just around Canberra (yet!)

Got a 1998 Carl Von Schubert Maximin Grünhaus special fuder Riesling Auslese 217 standing in the fridge that should bo go well with chilled summer fruits this afternoon or even with desserts tonight, a New Zealand 2012 Drift Malborough Sauvignon Blanc that I bought for peanuts at the local liquor store the other day, and with mains tonight of bbq'd spiced lamb drizzled with a garlic yoghurt sauce and perhaps a tad youthful, but nonetheless top class, the 1996 Ch. La Grange.

Tomorrow's another day with the last of my resident jazzo's departing for other climes.

Finishing off a Sancerre tomorrow evening and then, depending on the menu, opening a 2000 Vieux Maillet to go with a steak or a 2001 Brunello to go with pasta and veal and mushrooms. Wednesday evening I'm attending an Open That Bottle Night at a Raleigh restaurant (no corkage fee) so I will be taking a 2007 Marquis d'Angerville Volnay 1er Cru "Les Champans" to share with others. (I had the first of two bottles at an offline in NYC last October with Dale W. and Diane and some others and it was drinking pretty well then.) I don't often drink wines like these within a week or two span. I've recently had a slightly aging Finger Lakes Riesling and a disappointing Sonoma County Merlot so feel ready for some better wines.

Our weekend was thrown into a bit of upheaval when Andrew awoke at 7 am sick to his stomach, a pattern that was to repeat itself for the next 3 hours with depressing regularity. Tonight's dinner was thus chosen to be easy on his digestion: roast chicken, steamed rice and (for him) edamame. Fortunately, that's pretty wine-friendly, so we opened a bottle of the 1989 Faiveley Corton Clos du Corton which was fine: nice pinosity, foursquare Burgundian with some baking spices and pencil lead to indicate the age.

It was my birthday, so I got to choose.The meal was cracked Dungeness crab, Caesar salad and sourdough French bread. A massive oak-and-malo CalChard actually goes pretty well with this menu, but I opened a Forchini Russian River Valley '10 chardonnay and a David Coffaro Dry Creek Valley '10 sauvignon blanc for myself and half a dozen guests. Nobody's a big drinker, that was more than enough.The Chard is aged in mostly neutral oak, and it isn't pushed on the malo side, and it's one of my favorite chards anyway, and it was good.I only took a checkout sip of the SB. It's a good wine that doesn't try to be anything else but SB. It's Californian, clearly, and David does age it in 3+ year old oak, so it isn't steely. It is good, tasty, food-friendly SB.

Friday, I opened a 2005 Bachelet Bourgogne - probably not a good time to be drinking 2005 Burgundy. It wasn't offering much pleasure, but it was handy to drink on pizza night. Tonight it will be a 2006 Larkmead Cabernet Sauvignon to go with NY Strips. My last bottle of 3 that I purchased at the winery.

Opened a bottle of 'twisted' last night to go with cheesy chicken corn chowder. This wine is made by Flat Rock Cellars in Ontario and is wicked mix of gewurztraminer, riesling, and chardonnay. The 2010 was semisweet, had a nice nose with spices and lychees from the gewurz, the midpalate had nice acidity and good orange fruit, some lychees, and touch of peach. Nice medium finish. Really nice match with chowder as is is somewhat sweet (from the sweet corn) and the sweetness and fruit of wine really blended well with the chowder's cheese and corn while the acidity helped cleanse the palate of the the palate-coating cheesy taste.

On Friday night we finished off a bottle 0f 2010 Rosso di Montalcino that matched well with the tomato and mushroom sauce on our salisbury steaks. We had opened this wine on Thursday night to go with some homemade lasagna. Believe it or not, the wine actually matched better with the salisbury steak topping than with the lasagna, but I attribute that to the mushrooms mixed in the tomato sauce.

We opened a 2011 Christmann Reiterpfad Riesling GG and a 2009 Christmann Idig Spätburgunder GG on Saturday. The Reiterpfad was excellent. I love that vineyard -peachy and succulent and clean as a whistle. The Idig was good too, but I really prefer the 2008. 2009 was a bit riper and rather soft. Christmann is now experimenting with adding a little press-wine to the Idig for added structure. I approve of that!

Here are my weekend bottles. Best was the Syrah from Fontodi, already mentioned in my above post, while the Savennières was a catastrophe partly through my failure to read past TNs before serving.

“Case Via” Syrah Colli della Toscana Centrale IGT 2000 – Tenuta Fontodi, Panzano – Alc. 13.5%Nearly four years ago, I wrote -C: Deep red with no bricking.N: The development was fascinating after decanting and pouring. At first there were reductive egg notes with some leather on a background of rich dark fruit; then some blackberry, red rose and cigar box notes evocative of fine Shiraz emerged with the egg receding and after some more time the aromas integrated into a fine rich whole.P: After some cradling of the glass to remove the last of the cellar’s chill, a rich, velvety, full bodied, darkly ripe and fruity and fragrant wine emerged with aromas of red rose and sweet cherry, hints of spice, sufficient structural support and length. From memory, the cool year 1996, which I also have in my cellar, is more acidic and closer to the Northern Rhône model with its sour cherry aromas and elegance, but I guess that this is closer to what Syrah regularly produces in the Tuscan environment; at its peak now, I think; 16/20+.

Friday’s bottle was fairly similar but without the initial reductive and Shiraz-like notes. So, I was wrong then about the wine’s being at its peak in 2009. Very good; 16/20++.

Savennières Cuvée Spéciale 1995 – Château d’Epiré – Alc.13% was a very deep yellow and showed a lot of sherry tinged wax notes. I thought of consigning it to the sink but decided to keep back about a half to use in cooking. I should have read my TN of a year ago where I advised decanting after recording a similar experience at first followed by a remarkable recovery of the remains in the bottle after about three days in the fridge. On this initial showing mediocre 12/20.

Terrae Dei Nero d’Avola IGT Sicilia 2009 – Corvo – Alc.13%, picked up from the bin-ends for €5 at a supermarket, was enjoyable partly because it was different from what I usually drink. The nose was well developed with orange peel, rose petal and slightly but agreeably rubbery notes. The medium/full bodied palate showed good fruit which added ripe blackberry to the aromas from the nose and better than expected acidity with adequately firm tannic structure. Quite good and nice once in a while 14.5/20.

Port tasting at a local wine shop on Sat lunch time so I will take along a bottle of the Lagier Meredith Precious Bane to put up against whatever is being poured. There will also be a dinner that day with friends who will be coming with us on a little jaunt through Aussie wine country (Rutherglen, Barossa, Clare) in Feb so it will be Aussies including Penfolds Bin 311 Chardonnay, a wine I have not tried before, Mollydooker's Boxer Shiraz, and something with a little more sense of place like a Dutschke or Winter Creek Shiraz from the Barossa or maybe a New Zealand Syrah.

We're going to go dry tonight, but tomorrow night I've invited three couples over for dinner. Everybody always wants to bring something, but I've told them I'll handle all the food, champagne to start and Sauternes with dessert, plus one bottle for each of the three savory courses for which each of them would choose a course to also match a wine to. Will make the dinner participatory without turning it into a pot luck, and as the host I'll still bear the primary burden which is correct. I've chosen an 05 Arcadian chardonnay for the shrimp course, an Arcadian Sleepy Hollow pinot for the cold ham terrine that follows the shrimp, and I've yet to choose a cab sauv to go with the beef. I'm tempted to go Bordeaux, but then that's where my head has been all week. If the guest who chose that course brings something overtly new world, I could be sorry.

Hmmmmmm.

My wine shopping and I have never had a problem. Just a perpetual race between the bankruptcy court and Hell.--Rogov

Bob, Some might complain about the wine worthiness of a Mollydooker but having visited the winery and been given a lengthy talk on how they tend the vineyard, how they expect the wine to develop in barrel and then spending quite few hours tasting their lineup with Sparky's mum, I'm a fan. Plus they have just been awarded an Australia Day Wine award, to wit

OFFICER OF THE ORDER OF AUSTRALIAN WINE (AWO), For outstanding achievement and service. Mollydooker Wines: For services to alcohol.Raising the middle finger to those who would plead for less alcohol in their wines is McLaren Vale's own rugged individual, Mollydooker Wines. The leftie continues to release blockbusters with alcohols so high you'd need a good run up and a lend of Steve Hooker's jumping pole to get over.

Australia Day Wine Awards - obviously tongue in cheek but good clean fun! Shiraz, of course, won a COMPANIONS OF THE ORDER OF AUSTRALIAN WINE (AWC), Our greatest honour, awarded for eminent achievement and merit of the highest degree. For services to wine enjoyment.

Wayne Dutschke makes wines of a completely different style in the Barossa. We will probably pull out a 2002 Oscar Semmler because it really does show a sense of place.

Attended local winestores Xmas staff party with a visit to a very good Chinese restaurant. We drank a lot of German wines but the standout for me was the `06 Donnhoff Grauburgunder S.14% alc, deep lemon color. Great nose/herb/spice/white stonefruit/long finish. Went terrific with oysters in black bean sauce. More notes to come asap.14 courses, 20 wines total.

I should have also mentioned the 2009 Hupfeld Hochheimer Konigin Victoriaberg Riesling Spatlese (Rheingau, Germany). New crew on board here, has gone through some rough patches I believe. Very traditional label, glass stopper. Went very well with stuffed crab claws......puree of shrimp and a fine coating. Wine was sweet but a perfect match for many of us. Lots of complexity, long finish and only $30 Cdn I believe.

Two interesting ones down the hatch last week as well as the Fronsac about which I wrote in the Merlot WF thread.

Ribera del Duero Pesquera Tinto Crianza 1994 – Bodegas Alejandro Fernandez – Alc.13%. This bottle showed lovely rich cherry aromatics with a varnish tinge not a million miles away from those of that Fronsac but much rounder and more concentrated. Body was quite full, sweet cherry with a liqueur streak dominated the red and dark fruit which were still fresh and lively, mouth-fill was generous and the warm tannic structure gave firm support to the quite long finish. A distinct plus, given the Spanish besetting sin of heavy oak treatment, was the absence residual evidence of wood other than discreet flecks of vanilla and a silky texture. Both richer and better than my memory and note on the 1995; excellent 17/20.

Steinfeld Grüner Veltliner 2011 – Alc.12% - (€3). I bought this generic GV in a bin-end sale at a local Carrefour for use in cooking but, on taking a test swig, decided to upgrade it to accompany an Alsatian choucroute. It was bone dry and honestly simplistic, showing attractive fragrance, crisp acidity and spice tinged minerals. Quite good 14.5/20++; but definitely not in the same league as most of Otto's GVs.

Mike Pollard wrote:OFFICER OF THE ORDER OF AUSTRALIAN WINE (AWO), For outstanding achievement and service. Mollydooker Wines: For services to alcohol.[i]Raising the middle finger to those who would plead for less alcohol in their wines is McLaren Vale's own rugged individual, Mollydooker Wines. The leftie continues to release blockbusters with alcohols so high you'd need a good run up and a lend of Steve Hooker's jumping pole to get over.Mike

I was just going to ask if they've tempered the alcohol any, and then I read this part. Guess not!

My wine shopping and I have never had a problem. Just a perpetual race between the bankruptcy court and Hell.--Rogov

Mike Pollard wrote:OFFICER OF THE ORDER OF AUSTRALIAN WINE (AWO), For outstanding achievement and service. Mollydooker Wines: For services to alcohol.[i]Raising the middle finger to those who would plead for less alcohol in their wines is McLaren Vale's own rugged individual, Mollydooker Wines. The leftie continues to release blockbusters with alcohols so high you'd need a good run up and a lend of Steve Hooker's jumping pole to get over.Mike

I was just going to ask if they've tempered the alcohol any, and then I read this part. Guess not!

Nope and I doubt that they ever will. Its the just the way they make their wines. Interestingly we tasted a group of 6 Aussies a couple of weeks ago at an in-store tasting and I asked the folks in our group to pick out the wine with the most alcohol. None of them picked the Mollydooker (Boxer) and oddly enough the Boxer led off the line-up but it was certainly not so hot and bothered to wreck appreciating the other wines which were all labeled as 14.5% while the 'dooker was 16%. I think if folks know the alcohol levels before they taste then you get complaints and comments but if they have to actually say which wines contain the most alcohol they usually get it wrong.